Security official: Guinea’s junta supports accord and will protect the No. 2 during transition

Security official: Guinea’s junta supports accord

CONAKRY, Guinea — Guinea’s security minister said the military will support and protect the junta’s No. 2 leader who will take over after the country’s wounded military leader gave into intense pressure to stay in temporary exile in Burkina Faso.

Cmdr. Claude Pivi told state television Saturday that he would make peace with Gen. Sekouba Konate when the vice president returns to steer Guinea toward civilian rule. He said the army would remain peaceful during the transition.

Guinea’s wounded leader, Capt. Moussa “Dadis” Camara, on Friday signed an accord to go into voluntary exile and to allow his country to hold elections in six months, a move that will immediately ease fears of renewed conflict and clears the way for a transition to democracy.

Camara’s decision, following three days of feverish, late night negotiations, is seen as a critical step for his country, which diplomats say could have slid into civil war had he returned.

The breakthrough deal, mediated in Burkina Faso by that country’s President Blaise Compaore, is being hailed as a second chance for Guinea’s 10 million people who lived in terror during the last few months of Camara’s one-year rule. In September, his presidential guard massacred at least 156 people at a demonstration calling for a return to civilian rule.

“We will keep the peace according to the directives established in Ouagadougou,” Pivi said. “The army is calm, we will remain calm.”

The future of his nation had hung in the balance as he was airlifted to Morocco on Dec. 4 after an assassination attempt and his No. 2 Gen. Sekouba Konate grabbed control. The two military men had come to power together in a 2008 coup, but differed radically in their vision.

Within hours of grabbing control, Konate sent an emissary to meet with the country’s opposition in order to begin hashing out a plan for holding elections. That angered Camara’s hardcore supporters in the junta, who chartered a private plane Thursday and sent a delegation to Ouagadougou to pressure Konate to allow their leader to return.

Burkina Faso’s President Compaore, who had helped mediate between the military clique’s factions, said Camara agreed Friday to allow his No. 2 to steer the country toward a return to civilian rule after realizing his health would not allow him to lead.

“Today we sensed on his part a great willingness in regards to Guinea’s progress (toward democracy),” said Compaore. “But we also think that a period of convalescence would be useful. That is why he has put his trust in his friend Sekouba Konate to lead the transition.”

The protocol signed by Compaore, Konate and Camara says the transition period will be no longer than six months, indicating that Guinea will hold multiparty elections in June. It says that no member of the junta, nor anyone in active military service, will be allowed to run. The transition will be led by a religious personality, it said, as well as by a prime minister to be appointed by the country’s opposition.

On Saturday, the private secretary of Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the leader is heading to Burkina Faso.

Cyrus Badio, Sirleaf’s secretary, did not elaborate on why Sirleaf is going, but analysts say she is likely heading to Ouagadougou to take part in the finalization of the accord.

The presidential guard that carried out the killings is largely composed of men from the small ‘forestier’ ethnic group, the ethnicity of Camara. Their victims were overwhelmingly Peul, the largest ethnic group in Guinea, and a major group in neighboring countries including Burkina Faso.

International observers, especially the U.S. and France, had expressed deep concern that if Camara had been allowed to return he would likely have propelled the country toward civil war, pitting soldiers from his ethnicity against the Peul.

Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal and Brahima Ouedraogo in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso contributed to this report.